Conventional Wisdom, given the current situation seem to dictate trimming flights and reducing capacity. One of the things I've learned in business is that Conventional Wisdom often isn't all that wise. If it were WN wouldn't be here. Neither would Apple Computer, NuCor Steel, Costco and a host of other well respected Companies. Why are they wildly successful, profitable and great places to work?
One common denominator is the folks are paid relatively well compared to others in their respective industries, yet all the above mentioned operate in a marketplace viewed as commodized. A commodity such as Cold Rolled Steel, Computers, airline seat and retail warehouse clubs would seem to be the LAST places on earth you'd see high wages, happy workers AND satisfied customers. WHY? What do these companies do that is so radically different?
They don't follow their respective industries "Conventional Wisdom". They dare to be different. One could easily argue in the case of NuCor that there business model/process single handedly drove big steel to it's ruin in the USA, all while paying wages that exceeded the Top Of Scale USWA wages. NuCor was the ruination of Beth Steel for sure. Undercut their core products and eventually drove them to C7. WN is yet another example of what happens when you do things your way and create a whole new paradigm in commercial aviation.
Why not instead of charging for every little thing look for ways to drive every little ineffiency out of the business and instead of decreasing flying, increase flying so that each aircraft was delivering the maximum amount of revenue possible per day? A properly motivated, inspired and compensated workforce could easily turn conventional wisdom on it's ear.
Couldn't US accomplish this by curtailing high fuel consumption RJ flying to the minimum their contracts allow and use M/L jets and larger capacity to fly either the same number of people more profitably or more people more profitably.
Everybody laughed at the folks at NuCor and at Mr Kelleher. Who's laughing now? It would seem to me that the airline business has had about all of the Conventional Wisdom it can stand.
This is EXACTLy right Piney...at the end of the day the successful companies do a number of things, one of which is "find points of differentiation" to build on. WN's success is clear...they just took the rule book out and rewrote it for them selves...and they demystified ticket pricing and made it EXTREMELY transparent. Ironically, not sure if anyone remembers, but Bob Crandall at AA said, "if we could ever simplify pricing, we'd have happier customers." They tried it and failed. WN somehow figured it out.
Back to "being different," or points of differentiation.....WHEN IS THE LAST TIME US DID SOMETHING THAT WAS DIFFERENT AND ACTUALLY ADDED VALUE TO THEIR PRODUCT???
I'd dare say, the DM program with unlimited upgrades.....and that wasn't the current crowd that did that.
So, what have these rock stars done other then to stick sharp objects into the eyes of employees and pax? As Sharktooth said, the kids in the Sand Box have done a decne job of appeasing one set of customers, the investors, completely at the expense of employees and pax.
What exactly, since the merger, has US done to actually imporve the employee or customer experience? Business Casual? Please...that hasn't worked and is doomed to the heap of failure. (Can't use survival....that was the REASON for merging, not the effort to improve.)
Now, lets come up with a list of EVERYTHING these people have taken away....
*Minimum Frequent Fly Miles Stripped
*The promise of "Low Fares Like A Low Cost Carrier, Gone
*Removed/Destroyed the F Cabin, Less Seat, Less Pitch
*Coat Closets Gone
*Glasswas Gone (Because we pax don't care about glassware?)
*Pretzels Gone
*Seat Pitch Cranked Down In The Back (Doug Parker: "We'd put more seats in if we could!" Wait, I thought we had a capacity issue???)
*Added $5 To The Cost Of Tickets Purchased On www.usairways.bom
*"Go Envoy" Upgrades Taken To Only Certain Fare Levels....
I'm sure there are other things.
So, someone help me here...WHAT has this airline done to enhance or better the service and customer experience???
Meanwhile, WN shows how to think outside the box....by offering up that pax can and will live without assigned seats...and they do as referenced by the fact they are the most successful airline in the history of the US Aviation industry. Not only that, but they figured out how to actually PROFIT from no assigned seating and it's called "Business Select," which is a great product! "Pick Any Seat You Want, Pay $15 To $50 more." Smart.
B6 didn't want the hassle of a full blown first class, so they took their industry leading pitch and increased it to 38" in the front of the airplane. UA created E+, CO has a Y-Up program for Elites that puts them in F, gives them F EQMs for the price of full Y....which is ALWAYS less then the "Low Cost Carrier," LCC.
I mean, the list goes on and on....
So Piney's right...this current "management" team has brought us NOTHING! They've brought their employees nothing other then a grind and they not only brought the pax nothing...they've heaped on a healthy dose of stripping.
It BLOWS my mind how the FIRST pace these people turn with they need something is to the F-YOU playbook of stripping value and quality...instead of thinking, "how could we create revenue."
Amazing.
Even more amazing is that people stand by and watch them do it....only now, that they are FULLY commoditized, it's going to bite them in the a$$ BFT.
BRAVO! 
